PREVALENCE OF LEARNING OIFFICOLTIES / DISARILITY AMONG PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILOREN: EFFECT ON EMOTIONAL PRORLEMS ANO ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT
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Date
31-08-07
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University of Agricultural Sciences GKVK, Banglore
Abstract
An exploratory study on prevalence of learning
difficulties/disability among primaiy school children and its effect on
emotional problems and academic achievement was carried out in
Dharwad city during the year 2004-06. A sample of 198 children (110
with learning difficulties and 88 without learning difficulties) was
drawn from 3 selected English medium schools studying in and 4^^
standards. A writing test was administered to know the learning
difficulties/disability. Emotional problems were assessed through
teachers' ratings using emotional problem scale developed by Prout
and Strohmer (1985) and two semesters grades were obtained from
school records to know the academic achievement of selected children.
Results revealed that prevalence was found to an extent of 21
per cent, among which 17 per cent of children had learning difficulties
and 4 per cent had learning disability. The learning disabilities was
found in writing errors such as substitutions, reversals, omissions,
other than punctuation errors and wrong capitals etc. Boys had 2-4
times more learning difficulties / disability than girls. The learning
difficulties were due to factors such as change in medium of
instruction and number of hours spent by parents for coaching at
home.
Children with learning difficulties/disability had 2-4 times more
emotional problems viz., thought disorder, verbal aggression, physical
aggression distractibility, somatic concerns, non-compliance,
withdrawal, depression, low self-esteem and hyperactivity than their
peers in the other group and were low in academic achievement. Girls
performed better than boys irrespective of their difficulties and boys
with learning difficulties/disability had relatively low academic
achievement indicating learning difficulties as one of the important
cause of failure in school. A high prevalence of learning
difficulties/disability is an alarming condition that needs attention
and early intervention.
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